Vasudha Living & Learning Communityhttp://vasudha.rpi.edu
Focused on the Earth, Energy, and EnvironmentMon, 27 Mar 2017 19:45:16 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.255059293Fall 2016 newsletterhttp://vasudha.rpi.edu/2017/03/27/test/
http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2017/03/27/test/#respondMon, 27 Mar 2017 19:42:51 +0000http://vasudha.rpi.edu/?p=212910Vasudha had a fantastic Fall 2016! Students participated in a number of engaging activities that were both community building and educational.

The year began with the annual Vasudha community picnic, taking place on the Nason patio, incoming students got a chance to meet and interact with the extended Vasudha community while being introduced to a range of sustainability activities on campus.

Professor Atsushi Akera’s taught his Nature and Society course again this year which gave students a chance to get out into the local community through a couple of field trips. These included a walking tour of Downtown Troy, the annual Waterford tugboat rally, and a trip to Albany’s New York State Museum.

Vasudha TLA Scott Kellogg led a number of sustainability themed workshops at the Nason dorm this Fall. The first one involved reviving the raised garden beds on the Nason lawn that had been built last Fall (they were in desperate need of some weeding and soil massage!). In October, students participated in a mushroom cultivation workshop, learning how to grow edible oyster mushrooms in bags that are small enough to be kept in a dorm room. Later in the Fall, Vasudha members were taught how to build small worm composting bins, one of which now resides in Nason where it turns food waste into soil!
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To round out the sustainability workshops, Vasudha RA Erica Uhler facilitated a class on how to make pesto from the basil grown in the aquaponic system in the Nason classroom, with participants getting to sample the end product!

In October, Vasudha Director Professor Michael Mascarenhas organized the “Toxic Waters Symposium”, a fascinating evening presentation and discussion featuring water rights activists from Detroit and Flint, MI. Open to the public, attendees learned about the ongoing struggles for environmental justice in these communities.
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To wrap up the semester, the annual Vasudha Thanksgiving dinner was had, celebrating community, food, and an ongoing commitment to social and environmental sustainability!
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We’re looking forward now to a great upcoming Spring semester at Vasusdha!

]]>http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2016/06/06/vasudha-2016-spring-newsletter/feed/0212895Earth Week Workshop!http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2016/04/21/earth-week-workshop/
http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2016/04/21/earth-week-workshop/#respondFri, 22 Apr 2016 00:00:09 +0000http://vasudha.rpi.edu/?p=212884This year, Vasudha welcomed Katie and Ashley from the Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA) for a fun and interactive workshop on canning vegetables and making butter. Attendees got to learn about the program that the ASA is involved with, which helps keep farmland and farming communities in the Capital District through a land trust program, and about the process of pickling vegetables and making sweet and salty butter (which we got to keep and take home)!

Here’s some pictures from our day!

Thanks again to Katie and Ashley! We look forward to having you back and working together in the future!

On September 22nd (2014) Vasudha brought a bus full of students (roughly 50 in all) from RPI to the People’s Climate March in NYC. They carried the two giant banners they’d made and walked with the roughly 410,000 other marchers for over four miles in what has been deemed the largest public action pertaining to climate change ever recorded.

]]>http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2015/03/06/vasudha-goes-to-pcm/feed/0212068Spring 2014 Newsletterhttp://vasudha.rpi.edu/2014/07/04/spring-2014-newsletter/
http://vasudha.rpi.edu/2014/07/04/spring-2014-newsletter/#respondFri, 04 Jul 2014 18:51:42 +0000http://vasudha.wp.rpi.edu/?p=211864Thanks to everyone who participated in all of the wonderful activities the Vasudha community engaged with over the spring semester!